By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
Feb. 14, 2023 | Sunday’s Super Bowl 57 was a classic, both teams performing well in traditional style, the game close all the way, and decided in the last seconds. It also showed that besides brawn, brains are mighty important in this game.
Kansas City Coach Andy Reid and staff supplied the brains, as he watched stoically from the far sidelines.
But it was the alert play of Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon that set up Reid’s final seconds of strategy. McKinnon sprang free from the 11 yard line around the left corner, and it looked like he was going to score to put the Chiefs ahead 41-35. The Eagles tried to let McKinnon score to get the ball back quickly, but McKinnon made a heads-up play. He deliberately fell at the 2 yard line. Had he scored, the Eagles would have had about two minutes to score.
And with Philadelphia Eagles explosive offense, they might have scored to tie (or win) the game.
But McKinnon played it smart, sliding down in bounds (to allow the clock to continue to tick) at the 2-yard line, with 1:54 minutes to go.
That’s when Andy Reid told his team to bunch together for the next downs, and snap the ball, allowing Quarterback Patrick Mahones to take a knee…and to continue to let the clock move. That allowed the Chiefs to run the clock almost all the way down. Harrison Butker (of Georgia Tech fame) kicked a 27-yard field goal with eight seconds left to give KC a 38-35 lead that stood as the final margin. Butker, you may remember, also kicked a final field goal to allow the Chiefs to go to the Super Bowl in their league championship game against Cincinnati.
The Super Bowl victory for the Chiefs was a team and coaching effort. The Sporting News reported: “KC offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy also praised McKinnon. ‘I think our guys are probably the most prepared team when it comes to those types of situations,’ Bienemy said on the podium. We told Jerick, Hey, if you break it, don’t worry about it. They’re probably going to try and let us score. But now we just want to take it down to the 2. Slide and declare yourself down, and we’ll get the first down. And I thought it worked to perfection.”
The game must have been particularly pleasant for Andy Reid, since he was the head coach at Philadelphia from 1999 until 2012, taking them to the Super Bowl in 2004. And since then, he hasn’t been a slouch of a coach, with a 269–154–1 (.636) record in Kansas City. He won his first Super Bowl in 2020, as Kansas City beat San Francisco, 31-20. He also took the Chiefs to the Super Bowl in 2021, but lost to Tampa Bay, 31-9.
Give Reid also credit for trading in 2017 for a first round draft, and picking Patrick Mahones from Texas Tech to play quarterback. He became a starter in 2018, and by 2020 had his team in the Super Bowl. But this could not have happened without Reid opting to trade up for a high pick of Mahones, who won his second most valuable player in a Super Bowl game!
All in all: great game, with brain and brawn on display.
A Shout-Out Thanks for Marlene Buchanan of Snellville, who reminds us that that Sunday was the 290th anniversary of when in 1733 General James Oglethorpe first arrived in Georgia, walked up Yamacraw Bluff in what is today’s Savannah, and was greeted by Indian Chief Tomochichi. Don’t you expect Oglethorpe was pleased and surprised that the Indian chief spoke English, learning it from the early settlers from South Carolina?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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